G. Lippert - James Potter and the Curse of the Gatekeeper

Scorpius shrugged. "That's a question for my father. I can't imagine why it'd matter. The fact is that she did work it out."

"It's obvious," Rose whispered. "You must have told her the time you came from. You must have given clues."

"I didn't tell them anything like that!" James said, but then a thought occurred to him. "I did tell them about Merlin's reappearance though. I told them it happened a year ago, on the night of the alignment of the planets."

"That's almost all she'd need," Rose replied. "They knew how to track those kinds of events. She probably factored out the exact date of the alignment, then added in loads of other clues you'd mentioned, like the day of the week or the month, the time during the school term, even the phase of the moon. She was dead smart, you know!"

James nodded. "No doubt about that. But still, how did you find the Mirror if Merlin can't even find it?"

Rose interrupted Scorpius, "Ravenclaw gave a sort of magical map! She embedded an enchanted signal in the Mirror of Erised, and listed the spell required to locate the signal. All we had to do then was follow it. When we found it, we were simply to touch the Mirror and wish for lost items to be returned to us. That's what we did, and then we just waited. Finally, bang! Here you are again!"

"Pretty neat, eh?" Ralph whispered, grinning. "And all because of Scorpius here. Or his dad, actually."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "If we're done congratulating ourselves, I've got plans in the morning. You three can stay here and get cornered by Filch's ancient Kneazle-cat if you wish, but I'm off to bed." He turned and began to creep up the stairs.

James said goodnight to Ralph, then followed Scorpius up the stairs, Rose at his side.

As the three passed through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room, Rose smiled tiredly at James.

"I'm glad you made it back, James. We didn't know where you'd really gone, or if Scorpius' information was correct. I was really scared. I thought maybe Merlin had gotten you somehow."

James furrowed his brow, thinking of the words Rowena Ravenclaw had said to him, urging James not to be taken in by Merlin, warning him he might have to confront the sorcerer if the moment was right. He tried to smile gamely at Rose.

"I'm fine," he said. "But it was close. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. I'll tell you everything, if you really want to know. For now, let's sleep. I'm nearly dead on my feet."

They said goodnight and climbed their respective staircases. When James got to the darkened dormitory, Scorpius was already in his bed, his back to James.

James' pilfered cleric robe had not come through the Mirror with him, so he was still dressed in his stripy pyjamas. Wearily, he put his glasses and his wand back in his bag and climbed into bed. He lay there a moment, and then sat up.

"Scorpius," he whispered. The boy didn't move, but James knew he was listening. "I don't know why you helped me, but thanks."

James lay back down. A minute went by and James was nearly asleep when he heard Scorpius move. Out of the darkness, the boy replied in a whisper, "Don't thank me yet, Potter. The time may come when you'll wish you'd never made it back. The time may come when you'll curse me for helping you."

James slept very late the next morning and awoke to a bright glare of snow and frost on the dormitory window. He washed, dressed, and clumped downstairs, looking for his friends. Eventually, he found Rose and Ralph in the library, arguing quietly over one of Professor Revalvier's homework questions.

"You two are pathetic," James said. "Doing homework on a Saturday morning."

"Technically, it's hardly morning anymore," Rose replied. "We've been waiting for you. We're dying to know what happened yesterday."

Ralph closed his book with a thump. "Besides, it's dead cold outside. Even the lake's freezing over. All the older years are mooning around trying to figure out who to go to the Yule Ball with. There's nothing else to do. By the way, did you get Zane's duck?"

James blinked. "When? The other night?"

"No, early this morning. Er, last night, by his time. He wants to hear about what happened to you, too. He said we should duck him back when you're ready to talk about it and tell him where to meet us."

James shook his head and smiled. "That's crazy!"

"That's Zane," Ralph shrugged.

"What about Scorpius?" James asked reluctantly. "Should we include him?"

Rose looked uncomfortable. "He says he knows everything he needs to know about it already."

"Whatever that means," Ralph added. "Oh yeah, that reminds me. You got something called a 'Howler' yesterday morning."

"What?" James said, frowning. "A Howler? From who?"

"Your mum," Rose answered. "It was delivered during breakfast, but you weren't there to open it. We tried to get it out of the Great Hall, but it went off before we could. I'm afraid everybody heard it. You really could've told us, James."

"What are you talking about?" James exclaimed. "What did the Howler say?"

Rose studied James' face. "You really don't know?"

"Bloody hell, Rose, you're killing me here! What did it say?"

"It was your mum's voice," Ralph said. "She was really mad, and loud as a trumpet. She said she couldn't really blame you for taking them last year because you were just being your father's son, but she'd hoped you'd learned your lesson. She said that they were dangerous, and what's more, that they belong to your father, and he was also pretty disappointed in you for nicking them again. Then she said that she hoped everyone was hearing it, including the teachers, so they'd all know that you were sneaking around with the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map, and that they should put a stop to it."

James spluttered, speechless. "But—but I didn't take them! They're still at home in Dad's trunk! I haven't touched them since last year!"

"Well," Rose said, pointing out the obvious, "they aren't at home in your dad's trunk even if you didn't take them. They've gone missing and your mum seemed pretty certain that you were the one who'd done it."

James felt both angry and hurt. How could she just accuse him like that? Sure, he'd borrowed the Cloak and the map last year, but he'd had very good reasons for it. He'd accepted his punishment, hadn't he? He didn't have any plans of borrowing the Cloak and map at all this year. But who could have taken them, then? And then, with a start, James remembered the morning they'd left for the train when Albus had been mysteriously late about packing his trunk.

"That little Skrewt!" James breathed, furious.

"What?" Rose asked. "Who?"

"Albus! The little Slytherin imp! He stole them! It had to have been him! The morning we left for the train, he was moping around, half-packed. Then, all of a sudden he left the room for a few minutes. Mum and Dad were downstairs getting the car around. He must have sneaked into their room and stolen the Cloak and the map out of Dad's trunk. He knew they'd blame me!"

"You can't know that," Rose admonished.

"I can't," James agreed, nodding. "But I do. Just wait until I get my hands on him. I'll make him send an owl to Mum and Dad confessing the whole thing. See if I don't."

"In the meantime," Ralph interjected, "we're still dying to hear about your wild adventure yesterday. Can we put this little detail behind us for the moment?"

James was still seething, but he agreed. He'd just have to see if he could track Albus down later that afternoon. Maybe he'd take Ralph up on his offer to escort him down to the Slytherin common room.

Ralph went on, "We've been thinking about it and we've come up with a great place to meet Zane and hear your story. Go grab your cloak and meet us by the rotunda entrance. And bring your wand."